Birchbox Crush: Bridget Fleming

One glance at Bridget Fleming's Instagram and we guarantee you'll be hooked. Originally from Australia, the photographer moved to New York's Lower East Side in 2008 and soon after made a splash with her arresting series Downtown from Behind, which reinvented the street-style genre. Since then, she's amassed fashion clients like Cole Haan, Coach, Tibi, Journelle, and J.Crew and traveled the world for editorial assignments. We caught up with the globetrotting shutterbug on one of her rare weeks at home, just as she was leaving her favorite Brooklyn café, Williamsburg's Black Brick Coffee.

You're always on the road for work. What are your must-have travel products?

What are your favorite destinations?

Right now I am completely crushing on Palm Springs. I’m a fan of midcentury modern architecture, and Palm Springs is a mecca for it. And then my ultimate hideaway is the Therme Vals in Switzerland, this amazing minimalist hotel and thermal spa built with quartzite from the valley there. It's very James Bond.

Latest product discoveries?

I’m a new fan of Epoch Sole Solution Foot Treatment. I applied it liberally to my face after a two-day desert shoot [in Palm Springs], thanks to a makeup artist who introduced me to the unexpected face saver!

Any crazy stories from shoots on location?

In Hong Kong, I was shooting in the middle of a very crowded food market. The model was rather scantily clad, and she stood at least a foot above the top of the crowd. There was this bird song of giggles from the shy onlookers, and tons of people snapping photos with the phones as she ran through the crowd for the shot. You can see one of the shots here. I didn't know it at the time, but my agent told me later that we could have been arrested for indecent exposure!

Any Australian specialties you bring back from trips home?

Lucas' Papaw Ointment. You’ll be hard pressed to find an Australian without this in her handbag. I’d also like to put my mum in my handbag and bring her back with me to New York.

When did you get interested in photography?

When I found my parents’ Kodak Ektralite 10, at about age 13 or 14. I’d wake my younger brother up at sunrise most mornings and shoot him in my parents' garden, I think there are at least two full family photo albums with images of my brother in countless garden editorial scenarios, superarty and totally hilarious.

Where do you find inspiration?

Often I find inspiration on a good old gallery hop in Chelsea. A random image, sculpture, or installation might trigger a wave of new ideas. If not there, usually outside of New York, away from the white noise. I find a lot of peace at the Dia: Beacon.

When you travel for pleasure, what camera do you take?

There was a time when I would only travel with my Pentex 1974 35mm film camera when on vacation. Now, it’s all about the iPhone.